Contents

The episode consists of nine levels in all, eight standard levels and a single secret level, as a homage to the similarly structured nine-map episodes in the original Doom, particularly Knee-Deep in the Dead[1]. As Doom II did not have episodes per se calling No Rest for the Living an episode is technically a misnomer. The new maps are a separate selectable campaign at the inception of the game, in a fashion similar to Doom's episode selection. Selecting "Hell on Earth" propels the player into the classic 32 map Doom II campaign, whereas selecting "No Rest for the Living" starts the new 9 map addition. Completing No Rest for the Living in singleplayer on any difficulty unlocks the "And Back Again" Achievement, and unlocks the "Doom II Marine Suit" Avatar award.

According to Nerve Software boss Brandon James the expansion set "continues on Earth after Hell's forces have [seemingly] been vanquished".

The Eternity Engine has built-in support for the episode if the entire doom2.disk file from the Xbox 360 version is loaded, or if a path is configured to point to the BFG Edition PWAD file. It uses the metadata.txt included in the diskfile, or reads a copy of it from eternity.pke if needed.

ZDoom and GZDoom will automatically recognize NERVE.WAD by its size and MD5 sum when loading the BFG Edition of DOOM2.WAD, and allow to play it as a Doom II episode (maps slots for No Rest for the Living episode are LEVEL01-09) with proper metadata provided by the source ports themselves. Version 1.9 of DOOM2.WAD is supported in the same way via loading NERVE.WAD as a conventional PWAD file.

Zandronum has partial support, allowing the proper playing of the episode itself via the NERVE.WAD file, loaded as PWAD file for Doom II, but otherwise does not register as a sub-episode of Doom II.